Thursday, May 22, 2014

"If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there’s a guy that has tattoos all over his face - white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere - I’m walking back to the other side of the street."

That's Dallas owner, Mark Cuban, doing his best Donald Sterling impression.
(I have news for Cuban: If a black kid in a hoodie or a white bald headed kid with tats sees his crazy ass coming, they might switch sides of the street as well.) Although, to be honest, I am glad that he is being honest about his feelings. We don't have enough of that these days. Most people are afraid to discuss their prejudices and face their benighted state of mind, publicly.

Still, as someone who should be worldly and somewhat sophisticated, I am surprised at Cuban's simplistic views about street smarts.

The truth is we all have to practice some level of street smarts. I have been told --that even in my old age--- I look like an NFL linebacker. I am black (not beige) and I have a bald head. So I am sure that if Mark Cuban saw me on a very dark night while I was leaving the gym--- and we were both alone--- he would probably cross to the other side of the street to avoid me.

He says that he would do the same to a bald headed white guy with tattoos, and he would be just as ignorant to do that as well. Unless, of course, he was standing outside of an Aryan or Nazi training camp in the middle of Idaho.

This is also true for the black guy with the hoodie. It's all about where you are and what you are doing. Cuban should know that. And I suspect that he does. Someone like Mark Cuban will never find himself in the type of neighborhood where he would really need to watch his back. I have been in those neighborhoods, and I practice street smarts; not profiling.

But let's be honest, Cuban's views are shared by many, and I am not surprised to see that there are already op-eds praising his stance.

"Let's be honest, white people don't write or talk publicly about race unless it's to condemn people for being racist. It's easier that way. If we all create a universe where everyone and everything is either racist or not racist, then it's about identifying your camp, you're on one side or the other, either entirely racist or entirely not racist. There's no room for nuance or awkward uncertainty.

The company line from most white people is this: Racism is bad and we're not racist. In fact, most white people today fear being called racist more than just about anything in the world. How much so? Put it this way, if your average white person had to choose between getting arrested for a DUI or being publicly branded a racist, just about every single one of us would pick getting a DUI. That's right, we'd rather put countless lives in danger, go to jail and face criminal charges than be called a racist in America today.

That's how potent the charge of racism has become. And you know who talks about race less than white people? White people involved in business. Aside from a generalized and glib stance in favor of affirmative action and diversity -- buzz words that frequently translate to insubstantial action -- most white executives would rather be waterboarded than asked for their personal views on race relations. I mean, sure, every CEO in America hates racism; we all know this, right? They abhor it deeply from the depths of their nearly all-white gated communities and the nearly all-white private schools they send their kids to and from the nearly all-white country clubs they play golf in. Why do you even have to ask? These people hate racists.

Which brings us to Mark Cuban.

God love Mark Cuban for being an NBA owner who didn't see the ongoing Donald Sterling mushroom cloud and think, "You know what, maybe I'll avoid talking about race today in a business interview. Maybe it's not the right time to talk about who I cross the street to avoid. Maybe it's not the right time to admit that I sometimes judge people based on what they look like."

Nope, Mark Cuban saw all this controversy and thought, "Now's the perfect time for me to talk about race in America today." [Source]

And I am glad that he did. I am glad to know that Marc Cuban is not a racist like Donald Sterling.

40 comments:

Field, "Still, as someone who should be worldly and somewhat sophisticated, I am surprised at Cuban's simplistic views about street smarts."

I am surprised that you are surprised at Cuban's views. Whether they are simplistic or not, is a matter of opinion. They are uncomplicated. As a bm, if I see a brother with a hoodie and I can cross the street, guess what? I'm crossing the damn street.

Hey, Daffy.It's not about color, it's about rational fear of the unknown. He did say if he saw a white in similar circumstances he would avoid him also. You, field, are a cartoon character." Maybe it's not the right time to admit that I sometimes judge people based on what they look like."You're supposed to and must under certain circumstances, like bad areas, at an ATM, etc., etc. Talk about wing-nut flat earth logic and reasoning.Oh, when YOU do it, cartoon character, cartoon character, than it's correct to do. It's street smarts. Got it.

Rich and or powerful people are so used to people dependent on them for their own money/power kissing their asses that they tend to forget why their asses are being smooched. That's when they tend to pop off with their "pet theories / peeves" to their everlasting confusion /embarrassment.

FN, "I need a break from Negroes like the clown who posted @8:57. Why are you crossing the street? Where the hell do u live?"

I live in Germantown, a section of Philly. Where the hell do you live? It really doesn't matter where a person lives, if you see a black teen or bm with a hoodie, CROSS THE DAMN STREET. It's better to be safe, than sorry.

Field, you are an idealistic naive man if you don't know this. What I'm doing is 100% street smarts.

Looks like Mark Cuban has more street smarts than you. I am surprised that you don't, seeing how you are Jamaican. But I suppose there are Jamaicans shielded from reality....very few though.

"If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there’s a guy that has tattoos all over his face - white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere - I’m walking back to the other side of the street."

Sorry, but many of us black folks would do the same these days and you know it. At least he was being honest. A group of young black males also give me the creeps, as well as a group of white, Latin etc.

I once locked my doors when I saw a group of young white males walking near my car. You should have seen the look on their faces. You could tell no one has ever done that to them before, especially a black person. Hell, I think one of them 'chortled' from shock. How cute, I guess. Until they find themselves being discriminated/abused like black folks when it really counts.

Like that shocked and clueless white woman Andrea Dingess, "shocked" after being bitch slapped from the bully popo. I'll bet if she was reading the story about black woman, she would have never give the black woman the benefit. Welcome to the club, becky. Probably mouthed him off as they always do and thought to get away with it. She's lucky to be white and that's all she got. He might have broken his baton over her head or tasered her friggin eyeballs if she was otherwise. I like it when the clueless and the entitled folks finally catch a clue.

Anon @8:57 said: “As a bm, if I see a brother with a hoodie and I can cross the street, guess what? I'm crossing the damn street.”

Anon, your thinking isn’t indicative of being street smart at all. It’s merely confirmation that you’ve been securely conditioned to think that a black man wearing a hoodie is in fact an imminent threat. Whitey has even turned tell-lie-vision into a boogey-man tool to scare the sh#t out of negroes like you. What’s next, …. crossing the street in fear because a black man has a goatee or a 1970’s Richard Roundtree sideburn???

We must remember that he represents 90% of the pale ones, he has all the qualities the pale ones can appreciate; & one of them being the HYPOCRITICAL love of the constitution with the main one being RACISM. A true MURIKAN hero ! Bet he " has a black friend " ok pale ones, go ahead & defend him ! WE'RE WAITING.

Black Sage, "Anon, your thinking isn’t indicative of being street smart at all. It’s merely confirmation that you’ve been securely conditioned to think that a black man wearing a hoodie is in fact an imminent threat."

My reaction comes from "direct experience" from being mugged by a brother in a hoodie. It has nothing to do with what Whites feel about Blacks. Maybe it's YOU who lacks street smarts...whatever the hell it means to you. However, it means keeping 'me' safe.

Many Blacks will avoid brothers walking toward them. You must not know a damn thing about your own people. lol--------------------

Don't you find it strange that every time the pale one accuse ANYBODY of ANYTHING there's ALWAYS two fingers, no, the whole hand pointing right back at THEM ? they are Sooooooo PREDICTABLE. Remember how they use to say Black Men raped pale women ? & comes to find out it was WHITE MALES that RAPED BLACK WOMEN WHOLESALE, the pale one is a piece of work & like i said, they are Sooooooo PREDICTABLE, there just like the little CHILD who, when ask, didyou steal that cookie ? & the little CHILD says no, while standing there with cookie crumbs all over his or her face. But the thing that gets me is, why do black people who has all these millions of dollars CONTINUE to WORK for the RACIST PALE ONES instead of saying F#@$ off & doing for themselves? If i live to get a hundred years old i will NEVER understand that mentality. I have a hauling service & i would rather haul junk around than to put up with these RACIST DEMONIC CREATURES.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has penned several valentines to the Veterans Health Administration over the years. In a 2006 column, Krugman argued that the system was, “one of the best-kept secrets in the American policy debate.”

“What Mr. Romney and everyone else should know is that the V.H.A. is a huge policy success story, which offers important lessons for future health reform,”

This explains why the government is getting all that military equipment.

Law enforcement deaths this year dropped to their lowest level since 1959, while the decade of the 2000s was among the safest for officers, despite the deadliest single day for police on Sept. 11, 2001.

Yea, so now he wants to... " APOLOGIZE " let me say this, he can take his PHONY APOLOGY & shove it. I am so tired of these RACIST PALE ONES saying & doing RACIST SHYT then so-call APOLOGIZE you CREATURES are truly PATHETIC, that... sterling was going with a mixed very YOUNG women old enough to be his GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER when he said what he said, & then so-called APOLOGIZED,save that mess. As long as i can recall, There's has not been one time that the pale ones has NOT said something OFFENSIVE, CHILDISH, & RACIST, NEVER. You can ALWAYS, ALWAYS count on THEM to spew TOTAL NONSENSE 24/7, there's NO OTHER RACE on OUR PLANET that can compare to the LIZARD-BRAINED STUPIDITY of MOST PALE folks, EVERYTHING with THEM is based ENTIRELY on RACIAL STEREO TYPE. Here's the deal, whatever capacity you work in with the pale one, you can NEVER, NEVER, NEVER expect the pale one NOT TO BE RACIST. He can shove his FAKE APOLOGY & so can the rest ofTHEM.

Black Sage said... Anon, your thinking isn’t indicative of being street smart at all. It’s merely confirmation that you’ve been securely conditioned to think that a black man wearing a hoodie is in fact an imminent threat.-----

Black people are feared in America because that is how Americans have been trained.

Black people have been trained to be angry. They have been taught that, due to transgressions against their ancestors, they have the right, almost the duty, to physically intimidate whites whenever they have the chance. Their actions will be tacitly condoned as retribution for racism.

White people have been taught to be afraid of blacks. They have been taught that due to transgressions committed by their ancestors, they do not have the right to defend themselves against black aggression. Doing so will get them called racist.

Here's an NPR story about Americans in Europe as told by an African-American expatriate living in Paris:

I was going to the movies with a friend of mine from Yale who is black also. And there was a long line. And we were like, let's jump the line. These white people, they're going to be scared of us. We'll just go and jump the line. We'll get to the front of the line. So, of course, you know, we walked up to the front of the line, like, yeah, you want to try me? I'm black. That usually works in New York.

These people were ready to rip our hair out. And they were white. I couldn't believe it. And they were like, in French, what are you doing? The line starts back there. You can't just walk to the front of the line. They were, like, ready to kick our butts. I was shocked. I'm like, these are white people, and they're not scared of us?

That's when I realized I wasn't in Kansas anymore. And I liked it. I mean, of course, it was kind of humiliating, because you know, we're supposed to be the intimidating, scary ones. And then all these French bitches in high heels were threatening us. And they were in our faces. And it made me realize that the whole black-white game just doesn't work outside of the United States.

Because white people aren't afraid of you here. And at the same time, they don't hate you, because that sort of goes together. So I'll take it. I'll wait on line. Now I don't dare jump lines. So that opened my eyes.

That should open your eyes about Black Privilege in America, where a white man, no matter how rich, better not say a Goddamn word about black people. And you wonder why whites avoid blacks as much as possible?

You can't have the right to intimidate people, and stll have them like you. It's one or the other.

A flashback to the old days when democrats held presidents responsible for what happened on their watch...

For many Americans, the failure of the government to anticipate and then remedy the conditions at Walter Reed was an unforgivable moral affront. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/22/bush-visits-walter-reed-s_n_152840.html

If we think about it sports has been filled with people saying stupid stuff for decades. Jimmy the Greek, Reggie White, Karl Malone,Marge Schott(sp?) And a bunch of others. I guess we expected Cuban to have his stuff together a bit more but it's not shocking.I'm interested to see what the pressure on the Washington football team will do.

What's this bit about hoodies being a sign of anything? I live in lower Manhattan and see hoodies all the time, on young men of all colors, since this is also an NYU student area... Field is right about the neighborhood being a little significant in this case. Also the W Village here is full of peeps with tats. I would not look to Mark Cuban for deep thinking about anything...

Networks Devote More Time to Christie's "Bridgegate" Pseudoscandal in Four Days Than They Devote to the VA Scandal In an Entire Month

In nearly four and a half weeks, the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows have offered 110 minutes to an evolving Obama administration scandal involving secret lists designed to keep veterans from receiving proper medical treatment. Back in January, it took those same network shows just four and a half days to churn that much coverage for Chris Christie's Bridgegate.

Since the VA story broke on April 23 with the news that as many as 40 veterans seeking treatment at one Phoenix facility died while on secret waiting lists, CBS has provided the most coverage, 48 minutes and 46 seconds. NBC allowed 44 minutes and 53 seconds and ABC came in last with a scant 16 minutes and 44 seconds. None of the networks bothered covering the story until May 6, almost two weeks after it broke. (This is despite heavy investigative reporting by Fox News and CNN.)

On the other hand, if you're a white guy in a black neighborhood late at night and two young black males in hoodies approach, the possibility of getting mugged is suddenly real. Will it happen? Probably not, but this is the set up for muggings.

Anyway, Jesse Jackson is famous for saying if he were out late at night and saw some young black males approaching, he'd get nervous.

Black racist attitudes. When will you address this issue. Do you want more barriers obliterated? Start their. The majority of white America works hard in stopping racist attitudes within their family units. Do you do that in your family units, field? My guess is you perpetuate hate, hate that I've seen spread often. Your slap at Mark Cuban is an example of your own racist attitudes. He said nothing racist.

Putting it in perspective, you do call yourself field negro.

And blacks who don't follow your views you call house negro.

I'm just a white guy who grew up in a black neighborhood. I know all about discriminatory people of all colors.

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